“The more unknowable the mystery, the more beautiful it is” – David Lynch

The mystery novel has long dominated the fiction world, with its origins often linked to Edgar Allan Poe’s detective story The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841). Introducing detective C. Auguste Dupin, Dupin solves a seemingly unexplainable murder that occurs inside a Parisian apartment. The Murders in the Rue Morgue was the first of its kind, mostly because Poe introduces us to the “locked room” narrative, which functions as an isolated crime scene with no entry or exit point. In 1920, Agatha Christie arrived on the scene (pun intended) with her debut novel “The Mysterious Affairs at Styles,” which introduced detective Hercule Poirot, a character that would live on in her forthcoming novels. Mystery and thriller novels still remain as one of the most popular genres of contemporary fiction, and the reasons why are worth exploring. 

Mystery novels often provide a safe way to explore the dark side of humanity. With most revolving around complex characters and murder, readers can indulge their curiosity from a safe viewing point. Mystery is one of the only genres that requires its reader to take everything into account; a character’s disposition, motives, and trustworthiness are all things that matter. Furthermore, it facilitates the turning of the page, urging readers to keep on reading. 

But aside from the whodunnits, the Agatha Christies and the mystery box “locked room” narratives, there is mystery that lies within most anything that borders on crime, horror, and thriller genres. One impressive example is Mark Z. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves.” A story about a family whose house is bigger on the inside than it is the out, House of Leaves follows an unreliable narrator that becomes obsessed with the Navidson family and their house. As he works his way through “The Navidson Record,” or the family’s account of their labyrinthian home, he becomes rather disturbed and details his descent into madness as he grapples with understanding the mystery. A concept as unexplainable and mind-bending as this is symbolic of the great unknown and things that somehow exist without the means for explanation. Readers become entranced with subjects like this because it invites something bigger into the picture, into reality itself. We start to wonder what could be at play here, if we can learn something about the world from solving this mystery and reading this book. This is not to say that the whodunnits of the literary world are not mysterious, but seldom do they offer a mystery with such high stakes as that in “House of Leaves.”

But have you ever felt yourself become disengaged with a novel, soon as you find out the answer, or, whodunnit? I certainly have, and there are a few reasons for this. Primarily, truth is far less interesting than infinite possibilities. When we don’t know who or what is at the bottom of any mystery, there is space for something darker, more complex, and frankly more interesting than what may actually lie at the end of the book. The second things get resolved and all loose ends are tied up, the mystery evaporates. Our imaginations get shut down and reality rears its ugly head. Though some readers inevitably feel that all things must be resolute for a satisfying ending, I’d have to disagree. Mystery is all around us. It is one of the only things that we all share, and simultaneously one of the only things we can be sure exists.